


lost to these memories we found

by claudias



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Light Angst, M/M, Oneshot, Reconciliation, exes javid, i guess idk lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27604090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/claudias/pseuds/claudias
Summary: Jack gets a phone call from the person he’d least expected.
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	lost to these memories we found

Jack leans over and rests his arms on the railing, drinking in the sunset before him. He’d always known he was right—that the sunsets were better in Santa Fe, more vibrant and colorful and breathtaking. Reds, pinks, and oranges wash together to create a palette he’d only seen in his dreams. He can’t count how many times the Santa Fe horizon has been the muse for his paintings.

Yet he couldn’t feel worse. He’s alone, it’s Christmas Eve, and the streets are bustling. Not as busy as Manhattan’s streets—never as busy—but more people than he’d seen before make their way through the breaking night.

He feels guilty for leaving them behind, his friends and family, but he shouldn’t. When he’d gotten that phone call, that some scout down in New Mexico had seen his work and wanted to open an exhibit featuring his art, he’d jumped at the offer. And everyone encouraged him to go after his dreams, not to waste this opportunity. They were happy for him. But it had still felt like he was making the wrong choice, leaving his friends for some stupid dream.

Santa Fe is lonely. 

He misses Crutchie, and Katherine, and Medda, and Race, and—

His phone buzzes violently in his pocket. Jack pulls it out, and his heart nearly stops beating in his chest when he reads the contact name.

_Davey <3_

Jesus, he’d never even looked at his contact name since That Day. That Day when his world had come crumbling down around him in an instant. Yet looking at his name with the heart, he can pretend that never happened, that everything is fine.

Jack hits accept before he can change his mind and regret it.

“Jack?”

Never mind. He regrets it.

Davey’s voice is enough to send tears prickling in his eyes. Sounding clear, tired, and a little sad. There are voices in the background. His family, likely, celebrating Hanukkah in another room of that apartment that Jack had spent too much time in.

“Hi, Dave,” Jack breathes, trying not to sound like he’s about to cry, which he most definitely is.

There’s a brief moment of silence, Jack can hear the sharp intake of Davey’s breath. He’s regretting this too, no doubt. But for some odd reason, he persists, “How are you?”

“Good, good,” Jack says a bit absentmindedly. There’s something more on Davey’s mind that he wants to say, he knows it from that tone. He hates how well he knows Davey. “You?”

“M’fine.” Another shuddering sigh from the other end. “I just… I just wanted to hear your voice.”

How’s Jack supposed to respond to something like that? It feels as if the air’s been knocked from his lungs, drawn out just by Davey’s words.

“How’d your showcase go?” continues Davey. “That was last week, right?”

He remembers. Three months and Davey remembers. And if that fact doesn’t make Jack’s heart leap like nothing else… even if Jack had been talking it up for months before and never shut up about it, it gives him hope that he hasn’t completely lost Davey.

“Yeah, uh…” He scratches the back of his neck, needing to distract himself from the nerves coursing through his body. “It actually went really good. It finally feels like I have some sort of purpose in my life, you know? There was this old guy there dressed in this real fancy suit, and I thought he was just looking around but at the end he came up to me and introduced himself. Turns out, he’s the curator at the Met! Can you believe that, Dave? _The Met!_ And he said he wanted to feature one of my paintings in a new exhibit opening up there next year. I could hardly believe it. I still can’t.”

Davey’s response is a short, breathless laugh.

“What?” Jack asks.

“Nothing. I just forgot how cute you get when you’re passionate about something.”

Jack is immensely glad for the solitude, so no one’s there to see his face go red at Davey’s comment. “Heh,” he says, unsure of how to respond. There’s no anger in his voice, no bitterness, none of that heartbroken tone he’d heard That Day.

“So you’ll be back in New York?” Davey asks after a drawn out period of silence.

“Just for a few days, sometime in February for the opening,” Jack says.

“Do you have a place to stay?”

“Well, I was planning on asking Kath and Sarah if I could crash at theirs, and if that didn’t work out, Medda.”

“Stay at mine,” Davey says. It’s not really a question, but Jack knows his answer would have undoubtedly been yes. “We need to have a heart-to-heart. A real conversation about everything. Because we’re adults. And adults talk about things.”

“Alright,” Jack says.

Davey continues, “And if I’m being totally honest, I miss us. I don’t think I’m ready to let you go. I really miss you, Jack.”

“I miss you, too, Dave.”

“And… you know, you’re still my best friend. And my soulmate.”

“So we can try again?” Jack asks, excitement tinging his tone. “Try being _us_ again?”

There’s a pause. “I don’t know if I’m ready for… that, again. But I know that I want you back in my life. As a friend.”

“I love you,” Jack says before he thinks about what he’s saying. But it’s true. He still loves Davey, despite everything. Davey doesn’t respond for a long time, and Jack begins to think he fucked everything up. He’d _just_ said he wasn’t ready for them to be together again, what was he thinking? Maybe he’d gotten with someone else or…

Uncertainly, Jack follows up his admission with, “There’s not someone else, is there?”

He can hear Davey let go of the breath he’d been holding. “No!” he says rapidly. “God, no. There’s no one else. I’ve kind of sworn off dating since, well, you know… our break-up. You?”

“Yeah, me too,” Jack says with relief. “I mean, when I first moved out here, I met this girl on a dating app who said she was an entrepreneur, and when I asked what kind of business she does, she said she manages this yoga retreat for dogs. Let’s just say it didn’t last very long.”

Davey laughs wholeheartedly, and Jack’s heart swells. He’s missed being the one to make him laugh like that, with his entire chest. “I think you missed out on a great partnership,” he says more seriously.

Jack smiles. “Yeah, yeah, definitely.” It feels so right, how easily he can slip back into banter with Davey. It feels like nothing has changed at all.

There’s a voice on the other end calling Davey’s name, and then a bit of shuffling. “Well,” Davey says. “I’ve gotta go now. It was nice talking to you.”

“Mhm,” Jack agrees, trying not to sound disheartened by their conversation being cut short. “Maybe we can talk again later?”

“Maybe.” A beat of pause. “Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you, too.”

There’s a click, and Davey’s voice is gone. With a sigh, Jack sits on the fire escape stairwell, leaning his head back and staring at the darkening sky. That’s a start.

**Author's Note:**

> well i wrote this several months ago with the intentional of making it into a full fledged story but as u can see that never happened so . lol.


End file.
